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Election aftermath

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Sonoma Valley Sun

With the re-election of Rachel Hundley (coming in first) and Logan Harvey’s victory (coming in second), a potentially powerful new majority (with Amy Harrington) has been created on Sonoma’s City Council. Perhaps now, matters of funding affordable housing, ensuring that development is properly scaled to community standards and our development plan regulations enforced, and grabbing the lead on environmental policy (like regulation of Greenhouse Gas) can now be decisively addressed. Congrats to both Logan and Rachel.

Hopefully Madolyn Agrimonti (also re-elected) and David Cook (incumbent) will join the others on the council and get this town moving in a progressive direction. For too long action has been stalled by staff reluctance, misplaced spending priorities and a council too divided to make meaningful progress. The city attorney’s office, rather than clarifying matters, ends up usurping council prerogatives. City staff complains it can’t keep up with demands on its time and resources. In short, a sort of paralysis has been in place and now, hopefully, it can be overcome.

And to those interests who believe that sleazy tactics of intimidation, character assassination and dirty political games are the way to win elections in Sonoma…you lost, big time. Sonoma has generally been free of the types of underhanded, hit-piece-filled, political schemes that emerged this year and we hope the message this election delivers has put an end to them. The evidence is that here, at least for now, such schemes don’t work.

We’ll continue to do our job as an independent newspaper; to look at local issues in depth, report on them in a thoughtful and responsible way, and to investigate things that matter as necessary or as we are able. Accordingly, we depend upon you, our readers, to help keep us informed, share insights, concerns and information you may have, and even offer us financial support if you are able to do so.